Cooking is essential to living. Cooking a lot is essential to caring for kids. Cooking fast and easy is essential for sanity.
Essential staple ingredients to keep on hand:
MSG. Yes I know it has a bad rap. It's also a naturally occurring product of many healthy foods. I use it to reduce sodium in recipes without losing the umami flavor.
Soy Sauce. Get cheap soy sauce for cooking, like Aldi Low Sodium soy sauce; and then some high grade for seasoning, like Kikkoman Natural Brew Tamari. Most soy sauce for the US market is made is Wisconsin, and it's fine, but once you try the Tamari that's made in Japan, you'll taste the difference.
Worcestershire sauce. I had to google it just to spell it. It's "american" soy sauce....what else can I say.
Rice. Jasmine is our favorite and goes well with most meals. For Indian food, basmati is traditional, but we use jasmine anyway. Do not get instant or parboiled rice. We cheat a lot in recipes, but with rice, it's just not worth it.
Dry beans. Cheap, plentiful, easy to cook.
Quinoa. Cheap, keeps forever and you can make weird healthy salad-like things with it.
A word about spices: my cabinets are full. Too full. To save you some room, here are the only ones you really need:
Salt (kosher and pink)
Pepper (ground black and fine ground white)
Paprika (smoked is preferable)
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Ancho Chili Powder (yes, a specific variety)
Dill Weed
Coriander
Cardamom
Nutmeg
Cinnamon
Cloves
Garam Masala